It is always interesting to teach preaching in different settings.
This weekend I have been in the German town of Kehl, which is three tram stops away over the Rhine from the historic city of Strasbourg in France.
My Ukrainian hosts are dealing with the topsy turvy world of learning a new language and adapting to a new culture. The German government has been generous in their welcome to families seeking refuge from the war in Ukraine, and local churches have been equally generous in sharing their buildings with growing Ukrainian congregations.
This weekend we have been looking at what we can learn as preachers from Mark’s Gospel. As readers of my book God is in the House will know, Mark is a master communicator.
Preachers are helped by his Gospel to grasp not only what to preach but how to preach. Mark signals this from the very start of his Gospel: “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah (Christ), the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1)
Here Mark frontloads the theme, flow and central message of his Gospel.
As we continue to read Mark we see that the three titles he uses, ‘Jesus’, ‘Christ’, and ‘Son of God’, terms so full of biblical and cultural significance, project the key revelatory steps of the Gospel.
Mark introduces us to Jesus in the first half his Gospel. As he does so it becomes increasingly plain that Jesus is more than one of the many young men in Israel who were called ‘Jesus’. The unfolding picture of Jesus builds up to the climax of Peter’s confession in 8:29, “You are Messiah (the Christ).”
Then Mark builds up to the remarkable declaration from the centurion in charge of overseeing the crucifixion of Jesus , “Surely this man was the son of God!” (15:39).
“Son of God” was a title claimed by the Roman emperor, so the fact that an official representative of that empire should make this declaration is an indication of how much the coming of Jesus has changed the way we view everything.
It is the conviction of preachers that the gospel changes everything. For Mark that means putting Jesus at the front and centre of his Gospel, which compels us to do the same with our preaching.
This of course means that Jesus himself is always the heart of the message we proclaim. There is always a danger that that preachers preach about Christ but fail to actually preach Christ. Many sermons on the Gospels are mere retellings of the stories the Gospels contain rather than a proclaiation of the message about Christ that these stories contain.
What a tragedy it is to preach on the Gospels but not preach the gospel, to describe what Christ said and did, but not preach Christ in such a way that hearers encounter him in the sermon.
Perhaps that is what Paul is driving at when he speaks to the Roman Christians: “… faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about (or of) Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
In true preaching it is is the voice of Christ that is heard.
Contemporary preachers should not settle for less!
Photo by Foxie EdianiaK on Unsplash
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